A bipartisan group of top Senate lawmakers introduced a long-awaited sentencing reform law on Thursday that would curb “mandatory minimum” sentencing guidelines, which critics say can result in unfairly long prison terms for low-level offenders and minorities.
The Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act would end the federal “three strikes” mandatory life sentencing that was enacted as part of the nation’s “war on drugs” initiative. The bill would instead allow judges to use discretion when meting out penalties, and would reserve harsher punishment for those repeat felons with violent or more serious drug offenses.
The legislation was announced by a broad group of senators who rarely work together, including Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., one of the most liberal lawmakers in the chamber, and conservative Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.
“Mandatory minimum sentences were once seen as a strong deterrent,” Durbin said. “In reality they have too often been unfair, fiscally irresponsible and a threat to public safety. Given tight budgets and overcrowded prison cells, our country must reform these outdated and ineffective laws that have cost American taxpayers billions of dollars.”
The bill would also broaden the “safety valve” that judges can use to exclude repeat offenders from longer sentences. The measure would expand that option to “offenders with more extensive criminal histories,” but would exclude violent felons and drug traffickers.
The sentencing reform bill follows state initiatives, including one in Texas, which made rehabilitation a priority and not building more prisons to accommodate the massive increase in the inmate population.
“This legislation is modeled after successful Texas reforms that have rehabilitated prisoners, reduced crime rates, and saved taxpayer dollars,” Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Thursday.
The legislation incorporates reform measures introduced by lawmakers in recent months, including a provision that would allow some federal inmates to participate in recidivism reduction programs in exchange for serving up to a quarter of their remaining sentence in a halfway house, rather than prison.
The legislation would also improve the accuracy of federal criminal records and limit the use of solitary confinement for juvenile offenders.
Among the lawmakers sponsoring the legislation are Sen. Patrick Leahy, of Vermont, who is the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Cory Booker, D-N.J. Booker and Leahy believe current federal sentencing guidelines unfairly imprison too many minorities caught up in the drug war.
“Mass incarceration has cost taxpayers billions of dollars, drained our economy, compromised public safety, hurt our children, and disproportionately affected communities of color while devaluing the very idea of justice in America,” Booker said.
